BearFest roars back with new indoor location

BearFest, the annual local-only craft beer festival hosted by Boxing Bear, returns for a third go-around this Saturday. The big change this year, besides pushing it back and away from ABQ Beer Week and Blues & Brews, is moving the fest out of the brewery parking lot to the Albuquerque Convention Center. Unless you are…

Long-awaited Hops Brewery finally sets an opening date

I’m happy to say that I have an update on what may be one of the longest anticipated brewery openings in the Albuquerque area for some time. Hops Brewery has been a project in the making for years, with a prominent location on Central Ave. in Nob Hill. I’ll confess that I have been regularly…

The Unsung Hero of Blue Grasshopper keeps everything humming along

Editor’s note: With ABQ Beer Week in the rear view mirror, we are finally getting back to our Unsung Heroes Series. We asked each of the breweries around town to nominate one or more employees who go above and beyond, but don’t necessarily get the recognition of the owners and head brewers/brewmasters. Today, we meet…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Marble rolls over cancer once again

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s six breweries, one in Los Alamos, and one in Moriarty also joining the party. Marble is again stepping up in the fight against cancer with Love Beer,…

UNM adds Business of Craft Brewing class to summer session

Back amid all the chaos of ABQ Beer Week, our friend Angelo Orona sent us an email asking if we could help get the word out about the class he will be teaching at the University of New Mexico this summer, The Business of Craft Brewing. It begins this Thursday and runs through July 27…

ABQ Beer Week: A fond farewell with Day Eleven

That’s a wrap, folks! ABQ Beer Week 2017 ends with a small handful of events, including the annual Guild golf tournament, plus a few brunches and food-and-beer pairings. We wanted to thank everyone who made it out to one or more events this year. It all came together fairly smoothly, at least from our perspective….

ABQ Beer Week: Nearing a grand end on Day Ten

The end is almost here. It’s OK to be a little melancholy about Beer Week being almost over. After all, you will only have our 30-plus amazing local breweries to keep you happy through the rest of the summer. Oh, darn. Anyway, all sarcasm aside, there are a lot of varied events today, with plenty…

ABQ Beer Week: The Tower of Sour looks fine on Day Nine

The final stretch of Beer Week begins with a number of varied events tonight. Topping the list is the fourth annual Tower of Sour at Back Alley Draft House, which is going to be bigger and more festive than ever before. There will also be special events at both Tractor locations, a special tapping at…

ABQ Beer Week: The battle to be great dominates Day Eight

Four years ago, the Dark Side Brew Crew stunned everyone (mostly ourselves) by winning the inaugural Battle of the Beer Geeks at Tractor Wells Park. Then, the Babes in Brewland kicked our butts two years in a row. Well, the time has come … for all of you to probably vote for them again. But,…